Unity UFT Leadership Threatens to Sue ABC-UFT

And they're using your UFT dues to do it.

Dec 09, 2025

Cross-posted by A BETTER CONTRACT (ABC-UFT)

"Michael Mulgrew and his Unity UFT leadership caucus continue to use their outsized control and union member dues of our teachers’ union to attempt to silence dissent. They have sent a third cease and desist letter saying they do not want the A Better Contract slate/community that ran against them in the last UFT election to identify as UFT members. They claim the group is infringing on the UFT mark in doing so. But this letter goes further. It claims the UFT members in this group are not even a faction within the UFT and that they cannot call for “a better contract” in relation to the UFT. Read the letter for yourself. This is anti-American. Anti-union. Anti-democratic. Anti-free speech. Anti-justice. Unity-UFT, educators will fight fascism wherever it rears its head."

- Educators of NYC

Michael Mulgrew and Unity UFT leadership, a political group that has controlled our union for more than sixty years and who continue to preside over diminishing returns for educators across the city, have hired the corporate law firm Norton Rose Fulbright to threaten legal action against A Better Contract (ABC-UFT). Their claim is that we, the committed educators and proud UFT members of ABC, do not have the right to refer to ourselves as UFT members.

This is not the first time Mulgrew and Unity UFT have used our dues money to threaten UFT members. In June 2025, Unity UFT hired the same law firm to file a complaint accusing A Better Contract of infringement for referring to themselves as UFT members. That complaint was rejected by an independent arbitrator, who determined that ABC-UFT’s statement of being UFT members, which we are, is legitimate and protected.

Members can read more about that decision here: ABC Wins Arbitration

This latest legal action is being undertaken by Michael Mulgrew and Unity UFT leadership in the name of all UFT members, even though rank and file UFT members were not consulted and did not agree to it. This action is funded by the union dues of every hard working UFT member working in classrooms, school buildings and institutions across New York City. Rather than using dues to improve working conditions or strengthen our union, Mulgrew and Unity UFT leadership have chosen to use those dues to attack UFT members who are advocating for a more democratic and responsive union.

This is an autocratic attack on the rights of all UFT members. It is an attack on educators’ rights to free speech, free assembly, and internal union advocacy. It is an attempt to silence members who want a better union, not an attempt to protect the UFT name.

We will have more to say about this soon. In the meantime, you can read the attorney’s letter in full below.